Buffy returns in the top spot, although with sales far down on the beginning of the last Season, with Angel in third place. Sandwiched in between is Game of Thrones’ debut issue, while TMNT drops to fourth place after being last month’s best-selling indie. Further down the charts IDW’s other new licensed ongoing titles seem to be benefiting from the increased awareness the new DC books seem to be bringing, while many of Dynamite’s licenses seem to be tanking, the aforementioned Game of Thrones apart.

There were 127 indie books in the chart this month, well up on last month’s 103. The 103 book this month sold almost exactly what the 103 book last month sold, so this was certainly due to less Marvel and DC books released this month rather than stronger Indie sales. In fact those 103 books sold almost 35,000 less copies than last month, although top 300 indie sales are 1,053,116, almost 55,000 up on August. The bottom book sold 3,341 compared to last month’s 4,514. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

This month Dark Horse were the number three publisher, with 4.76% dollar share and a 3.51 market share, followed by IDW with 4.13% dollar share and 3.10% market share, Image with a 4.08% dollar share and a 3.29% market share, Dynamite with a 3.07% dollar share and a 3.02% market share, and Boom with 1.39% dollar and 0.94% market share. That’s the same order as last month, although all but Dynamite have reduced figures.

I’ve listed all non Marvel / DC books in the top 300.

Thanks to icv2.com and Milton Griepp for permission to use these numbers, which are estimates, and can be found here.

Buffy returns in the top spot, although with numbers not very far up on the end of the last season. Written by Joss Whedon with Dollhouse writer Andrew Chambliss (who I would imagine is doing most of the scripting), it’ll be interesting to see how fast this stabilizes.

107. Game of Thrones (Dynamite)
09/2011: Game of Thrones #1 - 20,888

This is a good start for the current fantasy favorite, making its comics debut. It’s received a second printing as well.

I accidentally missed this last month, where it debuted at #104, the fourth best-selling indie book in August. Written by Christos Gage, these are good numbers, well up on the end of the IDW series and obviously benefiting from the closer association with Buffy.

Quite a hefty drop-off, but IDW don’t overprint much, so these are basically retailer numbers. It’ll be another couple of months before we get a better idea of true sales. These are still very good numbers.

Another IDW title substantially improved in sales with an ongoing series. This has had a second print as well, so I’m sure IDW are very pleased. The second (or twelfth, strictly speaking) film is due late next year I believe, so this has launched at a good time to tie in with the inevitable upcoming publicity splurge.

This is still dropping quite fast, I’ve never been convinced of the appeal of Kirby’s later creations, as many companies seem to have tried with them and failed. Without Kirby, they seem rather ordinary characters.

139. Star Wars Dark Times (Dark Horse)
08/2011: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #1 - 18,548
09/2011: Dark Times Out of The Wilderness #2 - 14,870 (-19.8%)

Quite a bad drop off, the lowest sales figures the titles ever had, but still the best-selling Star Wars book. At least it’s shipping on a regular basis so far, the previous run only managed 4 issues in it’s last year.

Not too far behind its parent title, The Boys, but dropping a little faster. Not yet below the level of the previous mini-series, probably will be next issue, but still Dynamite’s fourth book in the top 150.

You’ve got to wonder whether Marvel’s John Carter book, which debuted with surprisingly strong sales of 19,173, is going to hurt sales on this book, or whether the film the Marvel version is based on will help. We’ll see around March next year. Dejah Thoris is selling almost the same as the parent book now.

The drops and the gaps between issues are growing, and Garth Ennis is leaving the book after issue 6. The incoming Al Ewing is an excellent writer, but pretty unknown in the US, so you have to worry a little.

The new series starts slightly up, but swiftly drops back down to the lowest level yet. It’s now selling less than a third of what it was selling 10 issues ago. The Tainted Love HC sold 1,461 charting at 63 in the graphic novel chart.

Abe Sapien launches above parent title BPRD, which sells around a thousand copies less than any of the other number ones this year. The eleventh Hellboy collection charted at number 5 in the GN chart, with sales of 5,215.

This relaunch doesn’t seem to have worked very well, it seems likely that it would be selling better if they’d kept it as Conan The Cimmerian. The most recent collection of the old Savage Sword of Conan comics charts at number eleven in the graphic novel chart, selling 2,781 copies.

Those drop-offs are getting bigger and bigger, which probably won’t be helped by the departure of Eric Powell as writer with this issue. That six-month comparison is very inflated by the retailer promotion that ran with the first issue.

Losing readers fast, this sadly doesn’t appear to have been as successful as Dark Horse hoped. The last issue just came out, and stated that although there may be more Dollhouse in the future, it isn’t going to be the near-future.

All of the GI Joe books are falling, the main book the fastest. Cobra is still well above the last series, and the sales pattern would suggest that some copies of issue three slipped into the following month, and the sales drop on that issue wasn’t that bad.

Really very stable, this is effectively two books under one name, as alternating issues run different stories arcs. They don’t correspond with the sales spikes and dips though, so who knows why that happens?

Ooh, after last month’s rise that’s a very bad drop-off. Not a good sign following the announcement that this book is becoming an ongoing, although that plan may have been quietly dropped, as the most recent issue was still released as 11 of 13. The second trade charted at 59 with sales of 1,533.

Not as big a drop as last month, and heading toward a cross-over with Incorruptible. Volume Seven of the trade paperbacks charts at a very good number 13 with sales of 2,618, meaning that the trades, priced at 17 dollars for 4 issues of content, are more lucrative than the single issues at four dollars each.

The two would appear to be being ordered pretty much in tandem, as sales are very close. The Drizzt Omnibus, collecting the earlier Devil’s Due series, charts at 86 in the GN chart with 1,120 copies ordered.

Kind of weirdly stable, despite bouncing around depending on the characters involved they’re all within the same sales range. I’ve already covered Grimm Fairy Tales, but I’ve included them here for reference.

An okay start for an unknown property, but this is a really attractive book, and deserves an audience.

289. Gladstone's School for World Conquerors (Image)
05/2011: Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #1 - 6,214
06/2011: Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #2 - 4,737 (-23.8%)
07/2011: Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #3 - 4,638 (-2.1%)
08/2011: Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #4 - ?,??? (?%)
09/2011: Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #5 - 3,729 (?%)

All figures on this chart are estimates for comics sold by Diamond to direct market retailers. They include reorders that shipped in the same month. Books shipping in the first week of a month will have more time for reorders to appear than ones shipping in the last week of the month, when reorders will slip to the following month.

A couple of things. I’m curious with all the Buffy, Dollhouse, Angel, and Charmed books out; as well as GI Joe, Jurrasic Park, etc. why in the world V (the last version seen on ABC) wasn’t continued in a comic book. It’s become a bit of a trend, especially with prematurely cancelled TV shows that have a comic book readership following. This is more DC territory, as I believe V is still owned by WB, and DC printed the original V comic book WAY back in the day. But I would have been intrigued to see season three happen in a comic series…

As for the apparent failure of Jurrasic Park. The artists they choose for these minis are (IMHO) subpar. I can never figure out why companies get the rights to use these properties, then fail so badly when it comes to actually putting out a quality product. Excluding John Bryne’s recent mini, they’re just not worth it. Even Dark Horse’s recent Aliens “reboot” followed this pattern.

Yeah the Zenescope books are definitly guilty pleasure books. But they never cross the line into Tarot level smarmyness. Tarot is by far the worst professional comic out today. It’s the type of book that really hurts the industry. I mean if Ballent wants to do a cheesecake book that’s fine but for the love of god get a real writer.

Noticeably absent is Walking Dead proper. As for IDW’s Cobra, the series is just as dark as under the first volume with Chuckles. I’m getting Sixth Gun in trade, and never realized it brought up the rear of the chart. This book is excellent.

@Nathan Aaron–Yeah, but Buffy and Angel had a total of something like 12 seasons on TV, while the latest version V only had 1. (Or was it 2? I don’t know.) Dollhouse didn’t last as long but comics based on Whedon shows are proven performers.

It seems to me that V comic would be a much bigger risk than any comic based on a Whedon property.